Double Decca sets celebrate glory days of piano

DECCA Records set the benchmark last century for recording all types of music and now lavish box sets are celebrating the “Decca Sound”.

Australian pianist Eileen Joyce’s life and career is being celebrated in a box set of her complete studio recordings.

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DECCA Records set the benchmark throughout most of the last century for recording all types of music with their pioneering sound technology, placement of microphones and shrewd choice of artists — turning down The Beatles notwithstanding.

What became known as “the Decca Sound” is being celebrated with the release of lavish box sets of eight decades of orchestral recordings, and now with a magnificent collection of 55 albums by just about every pianist of note from two centuries.

The set is arranged alphabetically by artist and ranges from the early recordings on 78rpm by the likes of Australian pianist Eileen Joyce and English doyen Clifford Curzon, through the mono LP era and the mind-altering arrival of the label’s full frequency stereophonic sound (ffss) in the mid-1950s to the introduction of compact discs in the late 1980s.

RARITY

In a box of 55 highlights a personal favourite is the three-disc set of recordings by Hungarian-born British maestro Sir Andras Schiff (who incidentally is coming to Australia this year on a tour with Musica Viva). Not only does the set include his 1984 classic reading of Bach’s Goldberg Variations — undoubtedly the best since those of Glenn Gould — but also a delightful collection of Scarlatti sonatas and a real rarity in some Mozart music for four hands performed on the composer’s own fortepiano with the venerable English harpsichordist George Malcolm.

Decca Sound The Piano Edition 55-CD set.

And Chopin’s Broadwood piano from 1848 gets a mini-workout by the popular and flamboyant Jean-Yves Thibaudet, who by way of complete contrast pays tribute to Jazz giant Bill Evans on Disc 54 and closes the box set with a Gershwin album.

Fellow Frenchman Pascal Roge is well represented with superb performances of works by Faure (47), Satie (48) and Bartok (46 and 49, on which he shares the billing with Arthur Rubinstein’s only Decca recording, Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1).

Two great piano legends from the mid-20th century, Englishman John Ogden and Russian Sviatoslav Richter, perform Oliver Messiaen’s Vingt Regards sur L’Enfant Jesus and Benjamin Britten’s piano concerto respectively.

STRIKING

The reclusive Italian genius Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (Beethoven, Galuppi and Scarlatti) is paired with Leonard Bernstein’s famous performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 15, directing the Vienna Philharmonic from the keyboard.

Legendary names like Wilhelm Backhaus, Jorge Bolet, Shura Cherkassy and Dino Lipatti rub shoulders with the likes of Alicia De Larrocha, Vladimir Ashkenazy and the young turks Benjamin Grosvenor from Britain and Ukrainian-American YouTube sensation Valentina Lisitsa.

Boxed in a striking black and white keys motif, the set comes with two excellent booklets about the artists and Decca’s fascinating journey, from Englishman Edward Lewis starting it in 1929 to cash in on the success of the US phonograph craze to its present position as one of the most respected and influential labels in the world.

You can buy it at JB Hi-Fi for $174.

REDISCOVERED

One of the “firsts” of the Decca Sound Piano box set is the 1946 Eileen Joyce recording on 78rpm of Tchaikovsky’s second piano concerto, never before released and long believed lost.

This rediscovered treasure is also featured on another box set, on the Decca Eloquence label, which comprises her complete studio recordings, made between 1933 and 1958, on the Parlophone, Columbia, Decca, HMV and Saga labels.

The 10 discs are all mono, except for an early stereo performance of Grieg’s Piano concerto.

Described by renowned Australian composer and pianist Percy Grainger as “in every way the most transcendentally gifted young piano student I have heard in the last 25 years”, Joyce’s life and career is the stuff of stage plays.

Born in Tasmania and raised in the goldfield town of Kalgoorlie, her talents were picked up early and as a girl a remarkable teacher at a local convent brought her on before she was sent to Germany to study further.

Some more conservative members of the musical establishment frowned on her popularity believing she was dumbing down for the masses

From here she started a concert career, ending up in London in the 1930s where her talents were given a wider audience through Henry Wood’s Promenade concerts and then both BBC radio and television. Later she was featured in several wartime films, either as herself or performing on the soundtrack, as in the David Lean classic Brief Encounter. Her wartime concerts, playing alongside Dame Myra Hess in the Blitz, for instance, also helped to make her a household name.

Decca Eloquence label has released Eileen Joyce’s complete studio recordings.

Some more conservative members of the musical establishment frowned on her popularity believing she was dumbing down for the masses, even though several of the top pianists of her day recognised her as something special.

She could adventurous in her choice of repertoire, giving British premieres of several modern works (including both of Shostakovich’s piano concertos), although most of the works on these records show her to be committed to the mainstream Classical and Romantic repertoire.

She also became interested in early music, playing harpsichord with Baroque advocates like George Malcolm and Thurston Dart. Her harpsichord album recorded with HMV, is part of the set.

What these recordings do show is that she had a remarkable technique — plenty of power in those fingers as well as a dazzling legato and range of expression.

You can get the set from JB Hi-Fi for $47.99.